MBB Exhibition 1 - Gonzaga 10/24

Back in Arkansas in November to catch a few games in BWA

Still think it's bitch-made that the bigger programs won't come to Bud unless the game doesn't count.

Dey skeerd.

Offense might take awhile to gel, at least in the half court. We will get a lot of fast break points.

Without Acuff, we are losing 36 PPG he manufactured on his own.

I don't envision Jordan Smith having that sort of impact on offense. I think he will provide 14-18 PPG. He's not a pure shooter, but can be a streaky one. I think just thru his effort and physicality he will get a lot of FT's and put back attempts.

In reality, we shouldn't need him to be Acuff level production on offense. He's got enough tools around him to open things up.

Defensively, we are going to pester the hell out of people. You can just tell watching these kids body language that they love the grind of defense. That stuff is what wins games in March.

The key to being a dominant defense comes down effort and discipline. We have a lot of guards that can stop dribble drive penetration which is huge.

If you're able to prevent lane touches, the help side and other defenders just need to stay disciplined and in their lanes. Force the opponents to work for every shot. Then BOX OUT and rebound.

Oh... and STAY OUT OF FOUL TROUBLE

Cal changed the offense a couple weeks ago and opened up the rotation.

Instead of 7-8 man rotation and because this team has the depth of players who will play defense, a 9-10 man rotation is likely as well as full court pressure and up tempo offense.

Instead of 1 Billy Richmond high energy hustle guy there are 3 and more who can play at this energy.

More of a team sharing the load of minutes and scoring which will be a fun change to the relying on a single guard going back to Muss' first year.

If this comes to be true, I guess the "Cal refuses to adapt or make change" narrative from Kentucky will prove to be another thing untrue as the try to move on from the Pope era.

Big CBS write up on basketball NIL.

LINK

Arkansas in tier two which is top 15 nationally at just under 20 mil.

One takeaway

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Key quote, Calipari on if the Protect College Sports Act fails: "I'll never speak on it again in my life. I'll go raise more money for my teams than anyone else, and we'll go about our business, and I'll pay whatever I've got to pay. I'm telling you, when they start cutting sports, I'm not going to say anything. I told everybody, this is where this is going."

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If true that pretty disappointing. We’re 5th in the conference for NIL in the sport we supposedly spend all our money on. Fire HY.

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All on board with firing HY…but does being 5th in NIL spend mean we don’t have the money, or didn’t spend it? Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t see Cal getting into bidding wars with certain unless he feels they are a must have.

NFL and MLB is full of examples of teams that over spend and don’t have anything to show for it….probably CFB also.

It is the rare example of a scrimmage game... where everyone knows it is a scrimmage game and plays accordingly. Trust me, with both our schedules, this will not mean a darn thing as to who gets seeded where.

Unless we, or they, blow the other team off the court by 60 points the end result is getting playing time. Honestly for Gonzaga this is a nice get for them. There should be a decent home crowd (by pre season standards) booing everything they do.

Hell, work a deal where next year we do this on their court.

He hasn't bitched and moaned about being out bid for players, he takes it for what it is in others overpaying.

His time with the nets probably helped, I'm sure they had a budget and he had to work with what was available.

He also recruits HS players which are way cheaper than portal guys, better bang for the buck.

He is the only HC on the hill who hasn't bitched at some point about the amount of NIL available. He is also they only one who hasn't spent every penny available every year.